E-Reading
If you have an iPhone or smart phone of any kind, or if you have a tablet, you are ready to read books online. You can pay for the books at Amazon or iTunes or other bookstores, but there are thousands of free books that you can download. It's legal to get these books, so don't worry! You won't get in trouble if the copyright is expired. All classic books are free to download.
The future of reading is with e-books, not paper books. You can carry your whole library with you wherever you go, and your books will never get old, stained or torn. If you have never tried reading a book online, you should try to read one now. You can increase the size of the type, save your page with a bookmark, and you can highlight the text that you want to find easily. There are also built-in dictionary functions and note-taking features. Try it! |
E-Reader Apps
To read a book on your iPhone, smart phone or tablet, you need an e-reader. Every device comes with at least one e-reader already installed. The iPhone comes with iBooks, but the most popular and widely used e-reader app is Kindle. This is the app created by Amazon so you can buy e-readers from the Amazon store. However, Kindle also makes it easy for you to download free e-books, so don't think that you have to buy from Amazon. If you don't have Kindle, I recommend that you download it and find a free book to try as soon as possible. If you really don't want to use Kindle, there are other choices of e-reader, which I have listed below.
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Marvin 3 (or Classic Marvin, if you prefer)
Marvin lets you access free books online from Project Gutenberg. It also has some good features, like automatic word look-up and the ability to insert notes into your highlights. |
Aldiko Book Reader
Aldiko used to be a favorite of Android users in the U.S. Now it's available on both Android and iPhone, and you can get it free in Japan. Why not give it a try? |
Where to get free e-books
I introduced Project Gutenberg on the Reading page of this website, but this is really the best site for free classic books. There is also a list of the most popular books by number of downloads. I recommend you try something simple at fist, like short stories or adolescent literature. Alice in Wonderland is available, as well as Tom Sawyer, Peter Pan, Robinson Crusoe, and many others that are enjoyed by people of all ages.
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Amazon not only gives you access to the free classics, but there are also many free romance novels, mysteries, and science fiction books. You can also buy books that are not free, but very cheap; less than $2.00, for example. These are designed to be used with your Kindle app, but you can probably use other e-reader apps as well. |
Open Culture - This site is an aggregator of free media on the web. All of the resources here are also available elsewhere, but this is a nice directory of free learning materials. Here you can find not only e-books, but also free movies, audio books, online courses and more. An example of something everyone is familiar with is Aesop's Fables. You can read it on your PC or download it to your phone. |
Standard Ebooks is a site run by volunteers to take resources from Project Gutenberg and standardize the formatting. It may be easier to browse this site than Project Gutenberg. If you check this site, you'll see some recognizable works, like Sherlock Holmes, Aesop's Fables, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and more. Search by title or author's name.
Reddit link with more information about Standard Ebooks. |
Loyal Books (formerly Books Should Be Free) offers free ebooks and audio books. It's easy to find what you're looking for on this site because of the large images. |
Books recommended for you (not so difficult)
Fables - Aesop - イソップ寓話 (Japanese Wikipedia)
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg versions / Loyal Books version /
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg versions / Loyal Books version /
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum - オズの魔法使い (Japanese Wikipedia)
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg version / Loyal Books version /
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg version / Loyal Books version /
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - 不思議の国のアリス (Japanese Wikipedia)
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg version / Loyal Books version /
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg version / Loyal Books version /
The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame - たのしい川べ (Japanese Wikipedia)
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg version / Loyal Books version /
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg version / Loyal Books version /
Japanese Fairy Tales - Grace James - Bio (Wikipedia)
Project Gutenberg version / Loyal Books version /
Project Gutenberg version / Loyal Books version /
Just So Stories - Rudyard Kipling - Just So Stories (Wikipedia)
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg version / Loyal Books version /
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg version / Loyal Books version /
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle - シャーロック・ホームズの冒険 (Japanese Wikipedia)
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg version / Loyal Books version /
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg version / Loyal Books version /
Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse - シッダールタ (Japanese Wikipedia
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg version / Loyal Books version /
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg version / Loyal Books version /
Peter Pan - J. M. Barrie - ピーター・パン (キャラクター) (Japanese Wikipedia)
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg version / Loyal Books version /
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg version / Loyal Books version /
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - クリスマス・キャロル (小説) (Japanese Wikipedia)
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg version / Loyal Books version /
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg version / Loyal Books version /
The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling - ジャングル・ブック (小説) (Japanese Wikipedia)
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg version /
Standard EBooks version / Project Gutenberg version /
You can get free books directly from Project Gutenberg. Search for Gutenberg at your app store. There are some e-reader apps that will download books for you! For example.
EBook vs Physical Book
Little Book Owl is a YouTuber who reviews books and makes videos related to reading. A lot of her videos are rankings of books in a particular category. In the video at right, she talks about what she likes and doesn't like about E-readers vs physical books. Turn on the CC (subtitles) if you want to read along with the video. |
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Millions of ebooks and other texts can be downloaded from the Internet Archive onto your smartphone or tablet. There are also audio books and videos. The video at left explains how to download ebooks from the Internet Archive. |
In recent years, Tsurumi University pays for an online graded reader service called Xreading. There are over 1000 graded readers on this site, and you can read them free! After you graduate, you'll have to pay. You can read these graded readers on your smart phone, tablet or PC. To get your free Xreading account, please ask Kevin. Students who are doing the English Reader Marathon may want to use this site in the summer when it's difficult to get to the Tsurumi University library to borrow actual books.
Not for English, but ....
If you have friends who are studying Japanese, Satori Reader is the best e-reader app for Japanese study. It's got awesome audio, and it's really easy to use. There is a free level and a paid level, but the app is great! Really recommended for learning to read in Japanese. I will probably end up paying for this. |